Jones with his wife,
Sonia, and his daughter, Caroline
(Photo: Bloomberg)

Paul Tudor Jones found himself in a hotbed of controversy this
week when video of him opining on the dearth of women in the
trading community was made public.

"You will never see as many great women investors and
traders as men. Period. End of story," said Jones, founder of
$11.3 billion hedge fund stalwart Tudor Investment Corp, in
remarks last month at the University of Virginia reported by The Washington Post.

That alone might not have been enough to be newsworthy. But
then, in response to the same question about why the panel was
comprised only of white, middle aged men, he continued with a
story about two former colleagues who by his recollection
became less effective traders after having children in their
twenties.

"Every single investment idea--every desire to understand
what's gonna make this go up or go down--is going to be
undermined by the most beautiful experience which men will
never share," he continued. "With that emotive connection
between that mother and that baby…I've just seen it
happen over and over again."

He added that women who choose to get married but do not
have children retain a shot at being as successful as their
male counterparts.

Jones also gave his opinion on traders who may be going
through marital struggles. Speaking as an investor in others,
he said he has an immediate and strong reaction when he hears
that one of his managers may be ending his marriage (notably,
Jones used male pronouns in this part of his remarks).

"One of my number one rules as an investor is…If I
find out my manager is going through divorce, redeem
immediately, because the emotional distraction that comes from
divorce is so overwhelming. The idea that you could think
straight for 60 seconds and be able to make a rational decision
is impossible, particularly when there are kids involved. You
can just automatically subtract 10-20% from any manager if he
is going through divorce."

The talk, delivered last month in a panel discussion in
front of an audience of business school students at UVA, was
reportedly intended to be off-the-record. But as the university
is a public institution, it was forced to give up a copy of the
video to The Washington Post after the newspaper filed
a Freedom of Information Act request.

On stage during Jones' comments were Julian Robertson,
founder of Tiger Management, and John Griffin, founder of $7
billion Blue Ridge Capital Management. Both stayed mostly
silent throughout Tudor's gender discussion, save for openly
guffawing when he used the word "bosom." After Tudor had
finished, and after moderator Jeffrey Walker gently disagreed
with the thesis, Griffin jumped to his fellow hedge fund
manager's defense.

"Paul gave an honest answer to an honest question: Why are
there few women traders? There always have been, there likely
always will be. I agree with him on that," Griffin said.
"It’s a very specific element of the
business."

As media outlets picked up on Jones' remarks, Patrick
Clifford, an external spokesman for Tudor at The Abernathy
MacGregor Group, responded with a
link to a statement that read in part, "As
I’ve told my three daughters, all of whom
I’ve at one time encouraged to go into macro
trading, any man or woman can do anything to which they set
their heart and mind."

Steve Bruce, a spokesman for Griffin at PR shop ASC
Advisors, said Blue Ridge had no further comment.

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